Mike climbed into the car for the middle stint and drove a superb race running at all times in 2nd position in class. There were plenty of challenging moments around the 2.5 mile Circuit but Newton rose to the task and kept a strong pace whilst maintaining the AD Group machine clear of incidents and looking after the brakes before handing it back to Tommy.

When Erdos regained control of the MG for the final 160 minutes, the margin stood unchanged at ninety seconds. Steadily, lap-by-lap, the gap narrowed. With forty-five minutes still to run it had fallen to seventy, but with both cars yet to complete their final pit stops the race was by no means over. Mathematically, Erdos could catch the Radical, now being driven by Rob Barff, but it was marginal.

With twenty minutes to go, disaster for Erdos as a vibration at the rear caused a wheel nut to work loose. He was forced to make another pitstop, just as Barff brought the Radical into the pit lane for its final scheduled stop. The RML pit crew leaped to their task, and had the MG back out again in moments, but not so the Radical. After five and a half hours, and with a lead extended by the MG’s wheelnut problem, the Rollcentre car refused to restart. Try as they might, the engineers couldn’t coax life back into the engine, and while they toiled Erdos swept by on the pit straight and into the lead